Korean Job Discussion Forums

[warren pease]

My boss is making me tutor his wife. She is in her forties and has a basic grasp on the basics but not a lot of communication skills. Does anyone know of any good books, maybe more business oriented than conversational, for adult English learners?

thx in advance

[walter235]

Side By Side isn't too bad of a series, the first 5 units or so are general discussion. After about the 1st 60 pages or so, it gets boring. After that, I use it as supplemental material.

[Pa Jan Jo A Hamnida]

The New Testament.

[Vimfuego]

New English File Elementary
Cutting Edge Elementary

or more Business orientated:
Market Leader Elementary
Incompany Elementary

[different]

What basics does she have a grasp of? Could she read an article from The Kids Times and understand it? What about an article for adults?

If she can't understand basic reading or listening stuff, you should give her homework for that. It's not useful to try to get her speaking beyond her ability to understand input. She needs to expand her base of basic English knowledge. Find materials that are at her level, and have her work them out for herself in her free time. When she meets you you could explain things she had difficulty with, but she needs to work through the materials on her own. The problem with many/most hagwons is that they choose materials that are way above the students' level, so students are unable to work the materials out on their own. Then the students just try to memorize data their teachers feed them, and don't improve very fast.

I haven't looked at Side-by-Side in a few years, but as I recall it was a grammar-based book. It's useful for strengthening her knowledge of basic grammar. She can get some writing practice and perhaps you could spend a little time on the speaking drills, but the drills are to contribute to her explicit understanding of the grammar. Don't expect her to use the grammar automatically in future lessons.

In my opinion, "conversation" books blow (including the respected Cutting Edge series):
http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=207298&highlight=

You're better off free talking with her than trying to make her memorize dialogs or expressions. Prepare some topics or materials to keep the conversation going. If you and her really don't click, then I guess you could use some speaking activities from supplementary books I recommended in the other thread.

So I recommend: input (reading and listening homework) + basic grammar exercises (writing and a little speaking) + fluency practice (probably free talking). NO CONVERSATION BOOK.

Good luck with your private students... I mean... your boss' wife.

[Vimfuego]

dude, wtf? Memorise dialogues? Free talking? What's the learning outcome there?

To the OP go with English File or Cutting Edge and make sure you've got the teacher's book. Adapt as you see fit to meet her needs.

[different]

Hey Vimfuego, wft? Read my post more carefully.

Hell no, I didn't say she should memorize dialogs. Memorizing dialogs is a terrible method for teaching conversation, but it's a huge part of many conversation books.

Free talking is a good way to develop fluency within the bounds of the learner's base of language knowledge. A mild amount of corrective feedback is recommended.

As I recall, Cutting Edge is a book that is marketed as a task-based book, but isn't particularly task-based (or has boring, unmotivating tasks). Task-based activities work because they give students something to talk about. After the task is completed the teacher can give corrective feedback. With a one-on-one adult class, however, it shouldn't be necessary to give her tasks. Free talking is probably a better way to give her fluency practice.

Fluency won't necessarily develop from a predetermined syllabus of "learning outcomes". Her base of language knowledge will expand from input (reading and listening), along with developing her grammar awareness. If her level isn't too low, some free writing homework would also be advisable, followed by some focused or unfocused corrective feedback.

[some waygug-in]

No book is going to solve your problems.

Not saying there aren't good books out there, just that you need to focus on what your student needs to work on, not some arbitrary list of grammar points set out in a book.

Talk to your student, find out what interests he/she has. Try to determine where your student's main weak points and strengths lie.

Design your lessons with those things in mind.

[Vimfuego]

A book will help structure the lessons/course. You then adapt to meet needs. Most teachers don't have to time to spend hours planning lessons, especially for an extra class like this one, so a text book will help out, and is the only realistic option.

@different I find that most students find CE's task based approach (albeit an extremely light version) very interesting, particularly Korean learners. However, you are right in that in a one-to-one situation they may not work so well.

Your approach, based on free talking, sounds great but could only work if the teacher had a heap of experience, and had worked with a multitude of different source materials (I include coursebooks in that). Free talking still needs to have some focus, and experience in using more structured courses gives you the know how to manage the classroom experience better.

As for your input develops language theory, again yes, but the OP mentioned that she was low level. Where are the best places to get graded input? Coursebooks. I'm not saying don't use authentic materials at all, but a low level learner can get overwhelmed.